BORN: 04 September 1864,
Iowa
MOTHER: Henrietta Cornish
b: ? d: ?
FATHER: John Atkins
b: ? d: ?
SIBLINGS: Dora
Belle Atkins b: 19 Oct 1873
d: 28 Aug 1957
Walt Atkins
b/d: ?
others unknown
MARRIED: Elizabeth
"Lizzie" Pierce b: 04 May
1865 d: 04
Mar 1901
CHILDREN: Naomi
Atkins b: 16
Jan 1889 d: 11 Jan
1976
RESIDENCES: Decorah,
IA; several areas of California including Stockton
DIED: 04
January 1949, Stockton, CA.
BURIED: Stockton, CA.
William was born in Iowa and lived in several areas of California. His wife Lizzie died when their daughter Naomi was around 9 yrs old. He was later married a Josephine Wiley.
William told his grandchildren that he was one of 11 children and that many of his brothers were horse thieves. He attended a funeral for one of the brothers in either TX or NM, there is a photograph of Will in Silver City, NM. His daughter, Naomi, always spoke of an "Aunt Hattie" and this could be why Will's mother's name is said to be Henrietta on the back of a photograph, the name may have belonged to both a sister of Will's and his mother, or one and not the other, etc. Will spent some time logging in Northern California and there are several photographs taken in Fort Bragg of some buildings and one of a portrait of a man taken in Eureka (also in Northern California) who might be a brother of Will and Dora's. Please click to see the "Mystery Atkins"
A lot of Will's personal documents and belongings were probably destroyed when the house on Ophir St (Stockton, CA) was demolished and we have no "official" papers of his other than his CA driver's licence. We found his death recorded on the CA Death Records section of Rootsweb and it stated his mother's name as being Cornish and his father as Atkins and that he was born in Iowa. His sister was born in Decorah, IA in 1873 but we have been so far unable to locate any evidence of Will and his family in or around that area.
Some of Will's occupations included being a logger, printer, self-taught lawyer, one of only 2 people in the US during his time that could set Greek Type, and a logger (possibly in Fort Bragg, Ca.). He knew 4 different languages.
He built the house that he and Elizabeth lived in, as well
as the house his daughter and her family lived in at 430 Ophir St. Stockton
Ca. He died in Stockton and is buried in a family plot there.
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